tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33624629.post4614621475678614378..comments2014-09-16T17:14:40.095-04:00Comments on Dan Shanoff: Revisiting My Ohio State Conspiracy TheoryDan Shanoffnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33624629.post-69299128837324753212008-08-13T15:42:00.000-04:002008-08-13T15:42:00.000-04:00The question everybody seems to be asking is wheth...The question everybody seems to be asking is whether or not it&#39;s ok to consider previous success/failure a valid criteria for judging a team&#39;s current merits--the answer to which, by the way, everyone (including you, Mr. I attended a Big 10 school and now live with my head permanently up the rear end of Florida &amp; the SEC--have some respect for yourself &amp; your alma mater, will ya?) seems to want to be yes, which I feel only further proves the point I want to make.<BR/><BR/>With all this ridiculous conference strength jibba-jabba going on, people are almost trying to forget that these kinds of biases have always been present (a lot of the time, it seems like everyone is waiting for God Himself would pronounce the SEC the be-all end-all of college football so they can be justified in all their chest-thumping--same goes for the Big 10, by the way, waiting for the booming voice to say, &quot;Hey, they&#39;re not <I>that</I> bad, cut 'em some slack, huh?"). Any attempt to remove such biases would only devalue the sport. That's why everyone wants to say their conference is better/isn't worse: it keeps everything <I>human</I>.<BR/><BR/>The very presence of human voters in the polls at all means there will be mistakes and bias. The people trying to justify their biases and the people trying to eliminate them are both wrong. The biases are part of the fabric; they don't need justification, and they can't be removed.<BR/><BR/>At least, that's how I look at it. It's not so much a question of whether a one-loss team can be ranked ahead of an undefeated team, so much as it's a question of whether or not the biases can be recognized and understood, controlled and utilized (they're not always wrong, you know) on a national scale. To me, much else on the topic seems to be hot air. (But oh man, hot air can be fun! Ha!)Matthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15962777687901447315noreply@blogger.com